There have been three kinds of Bavarian consorts in history, Duchesses, Electresses and Queens. Most consorts listed are Duchesses. The first ever consort of Bavaria was
Waldrada in the 6th century. The final consort was
Maria Theresia of Austria-Este in 1913.
The longest serving House was the
Wittelsbach Dynasty
The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...
, who played a major role in Bavarian History. During the medieval period under the Wittelsbach Dynasty, Bavaria was split into two parts, Upper and Lower Bavaria. This meant that there may have been more than one Duchess of Bavaria at the same time, due to messy inheritance among heirs. Three of the break-away Wittelsbach families were:
Landshut
Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...
.
Since 555 there have been 99 Bavarian consorts: 78 duchesses, 11 queens, 10 electresses and one
margravine
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Em ...
. The number doesn't add up because
Elizabeth of Lorraine and
Caroline of Baden
Caroline of Baden (german: Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine von Baden; 13 July 1776 – 13 November 1841) was by marriage an Electress of Bavaria and later the first Queen consort of Bavaria by marriage to Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria.
Life E ...
, held two titles. There was a few consort that married twice usually their brothers-in-law. It was common for the ruler of Bavaria to have more than one wife. His wives may have died childless or they divorced, because the marriage was childless. Most of the marriages were to make a treaty with the family of the consort.
Ducal Bavaria
Duchy of Bavaria
Electorate of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
''Note: All Frankish queens in the Ducal Bavaria section were also Queens consorts of Bavaria not Duchess consorts of Bavaria.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Bavarian Consorts
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Bavaria, Queen of
Bavaria, Duchess of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...